NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS.

PRUSSIA with twice three hundred thousand men has accomplished the great feat of marching up a hill
and marching down again. She has shown all her teeth, that the world may perceive she is unable
or indisposed to bite with them. Industry and commerce have been suspended, the workshop and the
farm have been deserted, all the ordinary hopes and avocations which make up the everyday life of Prussia
have received a check of the most disastrous kind; and, as far as yet appears, for no earthly object but to
show how eager the king is to obtain the domination of Germany, and how utterly unable and imbecile
to accomplish his desire. It remains to be seen whether the people, thus bodily dragged into the conflict,
may not take upon themselves at length the authority of ending it.

The French President has delivered a message as meek as Cardinal Wiseman's appeal. He promises
nothing less nor more but that he will be a good boy in future, and attend to all the tasks which the
Assembly may choose to set him. He is delighted that France should be so prosperous, and is preparing
all kinds of things to make her more so. Will the Assembly be so hardhearted as to turn him off when he is
so good a boy?

Pio Nono, after dispatching his bull to England, favoured Sardinia with an "allocution." In this document
his Holiness adopts all the acts of the Cardinal Archbishop Franzoni, formerly commemorated in this
narrative; and distinctly approves of the refusal of the holy sacrament to a dying statesman, who had been
active in promoting a law hateful to the Roman See, because favourable to the equal civil rights of priest and
layman! Let Lord Beaumont, and other Catholics in England, take warning in time.

The man-hunts continue in America; and a real rebellion has broken out in China. The earth is full
of portents of which the issue must be waited quietly. Mr. Webster preaches not only the sacred duty of
obedience, but the infamy of resistance, even to the law which creates a property in the bodies and souls of
human creatures; but even in quiet and stationary China, it would seem, and with little more than tariffs
and duties at issue, a termination is apt to come, sooner or later, to these duties of obedience and penalties
of resistance; and Mr. Webster may yet live to discover that there are inhuman laws which carry with
them no obligation of human acquiescence or submission, even for a day.

The National Assembly of France met on the 11th.
On the following day it chose its officers. M. Dupin
was elected President, by 383 votes out of 594 present;
the other votes being divided between M. Mathieu de
la Drome and two or three more. M. Dupin took the
chair, and immediately declared M. Baroche, the
Minister of the Interior, to be in possession of the
tribune. M. Baroche proceeded at once to read the
"Message of the President of the Republic; presenting,
in virtue of the 52d article of the Constitution, the
exposé of the general state affairs of the French Republic,
addressed to the Legislative Assembly in the session of
the 12th November, 1850." The Message treats its
subjects under the headings of Interior, Finances, Public
Works, Agriculture and Commerce, Justice, Public
Instruction and Religious Worship, War, Marine, and
a concluding Resumé.

Under all these branches the view given of public
affairs is highly favourable. In the Interior, confidence
and tranquillity have been restored. The finances
progress favourably; international commerce has been
raised; and everything concurs in warranting the hope
that the deficit of 1850 will be sensibly diminished, and
that the equilibrium announced for 1851 will be realised.
Great reductions are making both in the army and navy.
Foreign relations are satisfactory. The benefit to the
French flag of the liberalised navigation-law of England
is acknowledged; and hopes are expressed that pending
negotiations will end in arrangements still more in
conformity with the interests of the two countries.

The reading of the Message was listened to with fixed
attention, and the closing passages called forth loud
applause. The favourable impression made by the
Message had even increased on the 13th. Twelve
hundred copies were posted up in the different quarters
of Paris, by orders of the Prefect of Police; and 37,000
copies were sent to the provincial communes.

At the commencement of the sitting on the 13th, the
result of the ballot for the vice-presidents was announced.
MM. Daru, Léon Faucher, Benoist d'Azy, and General
Bedeau were all re-elected and proclaimed vice
presidents. The old secretaries, MM. Arnauld (de I'Arriège),
Lacase, Chapot, Heckeren, Beraud, and Peupin were
also re-elected. The business transacted was not of
public interest, except perhaps the motion made by M.
Antony Thouret, who proposed that the prorogation
committee should deposit what it has drawn up on the
incidents which have created so much agitation in the
course of the vacation, and that the minutes of the
different meetings of the committee should be printed
and distributed. The motion was seconded by another
Montagnard (M. Baudin), but was received with loud
expressions of disapprobation by the majority. M. Odilon
Barrot then rose and said that the prorogation
committee did not consider it necessary to present a report,
and that he had therefore no further explanations to
give on the subject. He terminated by moving the
order of the day, which was voted by an immense
majority. The House then rose.

The subsequent business of the Chamber has hitherto
been of little interest.

A serious occurrence has taken place in a small town
of about 5000 inhabitants, called Bourg St. Audéol, in
the Ardèche. On the morning of the 18th the Attorney-
General of the department, accompanied by 90 men,
comprising gendarmerie and troops of the line,
proceeded to effect the arrest of a person named Morrice,
Deputy-Mayor of the town, on a charge of being
implicated in the Lyons affair. The arrest was effected; but
as they were escorting him the troops were followed by
a large crowd, and when they were about to issue from
the streets to the country, they found their way stopped
by barricades, from behind which they were received
with a volley of stones and some musket shots. The
soldiers fixed bayonets and moved steadily on, while
those who were mounted were preparing to leap the
barricade, when the lieutenant who commanded the
gendarmerie was struck by a bullet which broke his
under jaw. The troops halted for an instant, loaded
with ball, fired a volley at the assailants, charged, swept
in an instant the barrier before them, and scattered the
infuriated rabble in all directions. One of the insurgents
lay dead behind the barricades, and several
wounded. The gendarmes arrested seven, and led them
off with the prisoner to rescue whom the revolt was
got up.

The intelligence from Germany during the past month
has constantly fluctuated between peace and war; and
the innumerable conferences and negotiations between
Prussia, Austria, Russia, and the smaller German states,
have as yet led to no ascertained results. In consequence
of the failure of Count Brandenburgh, the Prussian
Minister, to effect an amicable arrangement with Austria,
the whole Prussian army has been placed on a war footing
and the landwehr has been called out.

The Prussian chambers were opened on the 21st by
the King. The following is the portion of the Royal